Trump hints at climate change accord U-turn

DONALD TRUMP has said America could “conceivably” return to the Paris climate change agreement in the strongest hint yet he is considering a turnaround.

The US president said he pulled out of the environmental pact because it was a “bad deal”, but insisted he was not against the thrust of the agreement.

The comment is likely to trigger renewed diplomatic lobbying, though the remarks came on the same day that President Trump dismissed the importance of renewable energy and said he was a “massive” supporter of oil.

Discussing the Paris deal, he said in a news conference: “Frankly, it’s an agreement that I have no problem with, but I had a problem with the agreement that they signed, because, as usual, they made a bad deal.”

He added: “So we can conceivably go back in.”

Mr Trump pulled America out of the 2015 accord on curbing global warming emissions last June, leaving it isolated on the issue.

“The Paris Agreement handicaps the United States economy in order to win praise from the very foreign capitals and global activists that have long sought to gain wealth at our country’s expense,” he said. “They don’t put America first. I do, and I always will.”  Mr Trump has also said he is open to talks with North Korea, while remaining determined to apply “maximum pressure” over Pyongyang’s nuclear development programme, the White House said yesterday. During a phone call with Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president, Mr Trump expressed his openness to holding talks with North Korea “at the appropriate time, under the right circumstances”.